SBG Game of the Year 2011: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360

It’s time to award the best of the games exclusive to the HD consoles: the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360.

Andrew Passafiume: Rounding out what could be the best trilogy of this generation, Gears of War 3 is a just a ton of fun. You know what you’re getting into, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t any better than it always has been. The multiplayer has been refined, the campaign is the best in the series, and Horde mode continues to be damn enjoyable.

Justin Last: If you had told me after playing the original Gears of War that I would be singing its praises as one of the best experiences available on the 360 I’d have called you crazy, but between four-player coop play in the campaign, excellent versus, the greatly improved Horde 2.0 and the newly introduced Beast Mode, there is enough content that is fun to play here to keep me from seriously looking at another game for multiplayer for a very long time.

Honorable mentions: Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary, Dance Central 2

Andrew Passafiume: I know this is an obvious choice for the best PlayStation 3 game of the year, but it really does deserve that title. Uncharted 3 isn’t perfect, and it’s not even as good as Uncharted 2 was, but it does still continue the series’ tradition of excellent action set pieces and a pretty interesting story. Also, any problems I had with the gunplay have been resolved by the latest patch; it really makes a difference.

Matthew Jay:Uncharted 3‘s faults are few and minuscule. When looked at next to its strengths, they all but disappear. We’d say we can’t remember the last timewe felt this engrossed in a title and actually cared about where the story was going, but we can: it was Uncharted 2. Few things are new, but the old things are certainly bigger. Much, much bigger.